A List of Powerful Builds Pls?

[Long_Rough_Dab_40cm]

ive been having a lot of fun with DV characters but i want to get inot something really strong because even though i have around 50 hours in the game i havent had a character get past level 13 so does anyone have any specifically powerful builds?

[applenta]

I haven't gotten past lvl 13 yet, probably because i tried to test multiple throwaway build. But i think a combination of these abilities are quite useful without any equipment slot setback:

+Beguiling, easier to capture an ally than with proselytize, but at lower level, not quite useful if you can't find a good ally.
+Clairvoiyance, with higher lvl, helps you explore quicker and safer., also enable long range combat.
+Domination, take control of a creature, quite useful and fun to play with, actually, essential for me, i can't play the game without it.
+Burgeoning, summon plants, not only good in combat but also let you farm plant's corpse.
+Temporal Fugue, is like Burgeoning on steroid, doesn't last long but worth much better than those flimsy plants, and you can spam it with Mass mind.
+Ego projection, nice stat enhancemant, but stacked with Mass Mind turn you godlike.
+Mass mind, allow you to spam useful and powerful abilities even more, at high level, it basically remove their cooldown.
+Psychometry, the problem with gun is that you can't get enough bullet from shop, but psychometry guarantee you the bullet blueprint, if you are lucky to get good gun like chain gun, you will be mowing down slumberling even at starting level, crafting grenade also substitute for various area of effect power.
+Turret building from tinkering: more dakka! Line up of a dozen of them and watch the hail storm. Use machine domination hat to equip them with something to move around and they will scour the map for you.
+Sundermind, Syphon Vim, Stunning force, standard nuking power, differ than pyro or cryo that they don't cause much inconvenience.
+Sleep gas generation, confusion, force wall, teleportation, teleport other, time dilation they are useful support power.
+Space time vortex, allow you to adventure from safety in town, dominate your ally and send them to the vortex, grab all those end game lvl 20+ underground loot, break domination and they return to you. That Baetyl request something that you don't have? Dominate your ally and send them away to fetch.

-Don't pick light manipulation, even using them just feel like wasting your turn, let alone spending mutation point for them.
-Precognition, used to be useful for rolling advantageous outcome, but i just use the normal saving anyway, i still pick it for "legitimacy".

With these power you don't even need your DV, just sit back and let your horde of clones,minions and plants fight for you, but when you do fight, the combination of Psychometry's crafting gear and Ego Projection's stats boost will still make you a powerhouse anyway, you got all your base covered.

[My name can't be thirtytwo chara]

I disagree with many of these assessments, agree with others, but I mostly just want to say that you do Light Manipulation a great disservice. It's fabulously useful, and a great main attack for a pure esper.

WRT OP, I think that a pure esper is /probably/ one of the most powerful builds in the game, and has a fairly simple construction. Basically, put in as many points into Ego as you can, and a decent amount into Toughness, Intelligence (for tinkering and skills, I like to go to 18), and Willpower. Then pick Esper, and get a just a bunch of mental mutations. Good choices are Light Manipulation, Sunder Mind, Teleport and Force Wall. There are other great choices, but these are mutations that are both strong on individual targets and crowds (though something like Cryokinesis does better crowd damage, force wall lets you control them decently), and they enable good battlefield control. Once you have your mutations just put all your points into

Ally builds can also be worthwhile, with that same focus on Ego. You can go in two directions with this: either a mutated esper/ally build cross, or a True Kin one, where you can get access to robot allies. With this you get two guaranteed allies from Proselytize and Beguile/Rebuke Robot, and you use diplomacy to try and get more. You equip your allies with gear, and use Domination/ a Ganglionic Teleprojector (for robots) to buy them skills and mutations. You rely heavily on the Inspiring Presence skill to give your allies health.

For more physical builds, good things can be done with high DV builds where you just pump everything you can into Agility and try and get things like the Gaslight Kris to deal with penetration, or you can use psychometry to fund a mad bullet crazed frenzy with ranged weapons.

Above all though, don't forget to experiment! That's where all the fun comes from.

[Long_Rough_Dab_40cm]

Originally posted by applenta:

I haven't gotten past lvl 13 yet, probably because i tried to test multiple throwaway build. But i think a combination of these abilities are quite useful without any equipment slot setback:

+Beguiling, easier to capture an ally than with proselytize, but at lower level, not quite useful if you can't find a good ally.
+Clairvoiyance, with higher lvl, helps you explore quicker and safer., also enable long range combat.
+Domination, take control of a creature, quite useful and fun to play with, actually, essential for me, i can't play the game without it.
+Burgeoning, summon plants, not only good in combat but also let you farm plant's corpse.
+Temporal Fugue, is like Burgeoning on steroid, doesn't last long but worth much better than those flimsy plants, and you can spam it with Mass mind.
+Ego projection, nice stat enhancemant, but stacked with Mass Mind turn you godlike.
+Mass mind, allow you to spam useful and powerful abilities even more, at high level, it basically remove their cooldown.
+Psychometry, the problem with gun is that you can't get enough bullet from shop, but psychometry guarantee you the bullet blueprint, if you are lucky to get good gun like chain gun, you will be mowing down slumberling even at starting level, crafting grenade also substitute for various area of effect power.
+Turret building from tinkering: more dakka! Line up of a dozen of them and watch the hail storm. Use machine domination hat to equip them with something to move around and they will scour the map for you.
+Sundermind, Syphon Vim, Stunning force, standard nuking power, differ than pyro or cryo that they don't cause much inconvenience.
+Sleep gas generation, confusion, force wall, teleportation, teleport other, time dilation they are useful support power.
+Space time vortex, allow you to adventure from safety in town, dominate your ally and send them to the vortex, grab all those end game lvl 20+ underground loot, break domination and they return to you. That Baetyl request something that you don't have? Dominate your ally and send them away to fetch.

-Don't pick light manipulation, even using them just feel like wasting your turn, let alone spending mutation point for them.
-Precognition, used to be useful for rolling advantageous outcome, but i just use the normal saving anyway, i still pick it for "legitimacy".

With these power you don't even need your DV, just sit back and let your horde of clones,minions and plants fight for you, but when you do fight, the combination of Psychometry's crafting gear and Ego Projection's stats boost will still make you a powerhouse anyway, you got all your base covered.

Thank you so much for your info it really helps

[Thrax]

If you look at Tue Kin build a Praetorian with +3 Int, -1 in Will power, and +1 in everything else. It basically gives you the tools to dabble in anything, and excel at tinkering. Put on a buckler, conserve ammunition early except on hard targets. Pick up Snake Oiler early so you can make money, Pick up Atheltics to get a solid +2 EV and the Bonus 5EV to range. Get Trash Devining and Scavenger at the same time so you will have plenty of scrap to build, and plenty of secrets to trade and places to go. Pretty much no matter what you do a Praetorian is above the curve in equipment, and basic stats. The passive buff from Dueling Stance and a Praetorian Cloak already puts you ahead on EV while wearing chain.

The best advice I can give on any character is to understand your limitations and be careful about over reaching. Even a solid build is going to die horrifically to something that is just a notch above it's handling. Chaingun turrets can dish out 50+ damage a turn, slumberlings will turn low levels to pulp, the wrong damn mushroom might give you some nasty ailment that will screw with item slots and optimization. If you start getting to mid game, I hightly encourage you to dip in athletics for the huge boosts in EV, and to dip in Endurance so you can get stun resistence, and tempature resistence. Stun resistence is worthless all game, until you get stunlocked and die, then it would have been invaluable.

[wehttam449]

OP, in my opinion you're on the right track with DV builds. I've made it past level 30 a few times, and it has been with a gunslinger build every time. There are good arguments to be made that espers are more powerful. But, I personally hate having to memorize over a dozen hotkeys, and constantly checking the cooldowns of each ability. Given enough ammunition and mutations/equipment that allow you to run circles around your enemies, gunslinging can let you destroy just about anything and everything, with just a barrage of gunfire.

Personally, I use adrenal control- higher risk/reward ratio than heightened speed, which is an okay substitute, plus triple-jointed and psychometry. That last one is probably the most important pick, though. Without psychometry, you need to invest 300 skill points into tinkering before you can begin crafting. with it, you only need to invest 200, plus the bonus of being able to do it with an intelligence stat as low as 15, on top of being able to recreate any low-tier artifact you come across.

Can't help you with other types of builds, though. I think level 13 is around the highest I've ever gotten a non-gunslinger build... maybe that's one of the game's natural chokepoints?